Newspapers still making the headlines

This week marks the last ever print issue of the New Media Age and with it a commitment to digital only content moving forward. With this move towards solely digital content a major publishing development, it leaves consumers wondering if this is a case of forward thinking or all eggs in one basket.

New Media Age joins other key titles to take a digital only approach, with last week’s announcement from the Guardian about their move to a ‘digital first’ strategy, to deliver £100m in digital revenue by 2015. This also follows A&N Media’s announcement that Mail Online experienced a growth of 5.7m in mobile users over 12 months. With the Times Online leading the way for developing monetised online content, having announced that their paywall powered website has reached 100,000 paid subscribers, the publishing industry as a whole is quickly moving towards not only digital content as opposed to print, but eCommerce payment powered revenues as their core revenue stream. However, as any good Marketer understands, concentrating solely on one avenue is a cause for concern. With publishers taking a digital only approach in what is a very competitive digital marketplace, could we see a few casualties in the long run? Or is the more successful strategy to utilise digital as one avenue in a fully connected and integrated approach to content delivery.

In the 21^st century media and entertainment companies are increasingly forced to compete for consumer eyeballs, not only on more fronts than before but also against many more competitors. The nature of online content delivery is that it opens up a platform to more independent digital producers, and with social media the world’s population are now able to distribute ideas and opinions faster and wider than ever before and for free. In the past the television and newspaper industries were inhabited by the old guard of traditional content producers and publishers, to which emerging competition was few and far between and required major funding.

However, this announcement by the Times demonstrates that even in the face of scepticism a move to online paid for content, even for print newspapers as established as the Times, can and does work. Delivering content on multiple platforms including TV, print, mobile and online ensures that content is as wide ranging as possible, and monetising this content is vital to ensure that revenue is secured long term. If the publishing industry is to continue to deliver the content and news that consumers have supported for generations, then it must follow the advances set forth by other media sectors to diversify and offer cross channel content to the modern consumers on the move.

MPP Global’s core billing payment platform monetises the Times Online and enables publishers to protect and build upon their relationships with their customers.